Little Pink Starfish

After the funny “edited version” of Resume for entertainment purposes, the tone of the behind-the-scenes content shifted a bit.

Sedalbaekil started practicing for recording.

In truth, the week-long training sessions led by Han Si-on were hard to capture for the behind-the-scenes content. There were too many boring repetitions and highly technical discussions that would be difficult for viewers to understand.

If all of that were shown as-is, a lot of vocal trainers in Korea might have pushed back.

So for the behind-the-scenes, they cut out the complicated parts and focused purely on the practice aspect.

Sedalbaekil was really putting in the effort.

-Wow, they’re practicing all day.

-Seriously. How many hours has it been now?

-It’s my first time watching idol content. Do other groups practice like this too?

-Yeah, idols work hard. But it’s rare to see a group so focused purely on singing. Usually idols have a ton of other things to do.

-Like synchronized choreography?

-That too, but also fan communication, variety shows, photoshoots, music videos… the list is endless.

-So why aren’t these guys doing any of that?

-…

-Whoa, no need to curse. I wasn’t trying to be mean.

-No, no, that wasn’t directed at you.

Soon after, recording began at LB Studio.

-OMG they sing so damn well.

-So this is what all that “vocaloid” nonsense was about? Ridiculous.

-It’s funny that people even argued about vocal edits. Every idol group polishes their tracks. This was just Drop Out and NOP fans being salty.

-Now we just drop the news clip link and that’s the end of it.

-Facts lol.

After that, it was back to busking.

Sedalbaekil didn’t have cameras when they first started busking, but after they were filmed on the news, they began recording footage for behind-the-scenes content.

Stopping busking immediately after the news coverage might’ve looked too intentional.

The busking content was fun, but the fans focused on something else.

-Are our boys really this unpopular?

-Seriously; why are there so few people? If you exclude the casual park-goers, there’s hardly anyone.

-What would happen if another idol did this? Not top-tier but like mid-tier.

-Even lower-tier groups would draw a way bigger crowd than this.

Their perception wasn’t completely wrong.

Sedalbaekil wasn’t promoting their busking, and they intentionally chose less crowded locations.

Still, it was undeniable that Sedalbaekil’s popularity had some unique characteristics.

The general public knew them well.

In terms of name recognition, they were around mid-to-upper tier.

They had great results on Coming Up Next and on the charts.

If you looked at Han Si-on’s individual name recognition, he might even be considered top-tier, especially after it was revealed he composed songs for NOP and Drop Out.

But recognition doesn’t necessarily mean enthusiasm.

Knowing someone exists and being passionate about them are very different things.

-It’s kinda like rappers from Show Me the Money. They get famous but still hang out freely in Hongdae or Itaewon without getting mobbed.

-Yeah, that’s a good comparison.

-Well, what can we doㅠㅠ We’ll just keep watching and supporting them.

-It feels more like I’m following indie musicians than an idol group.

As fans chatted like this, Sedalbaekil’s busking appeared on the MBN news.

-Lol someone messaged me that my bias made it to the “society section” of the news.

-Same lol. Turns out it was the culture section, not society.

-World’s first idols doing a news reaction segment?

Thus, episode 2 of the behind-the-scenes content wrapped up.

But in the preview for episode 3, the moment fans had been waiting for appeared.

[Shouldn’t we start communicating with fans too?]

---

Sedalbaekil’s lodging is a detached house.

Originally, I wanted to find a place in Yeoksam-dong, close to my parents’ house, but nothing suitable was available.

I heard that before they become popular, many idols live in really crappy places—half-basements or tiny one-room apartments crawling with cockroaches.

But since we have money, there’s no reason to go through that.

I looked for upscale apartments or houses and ended up choosing this place.

The main reason was simple: there was a good practice studio for rent just five minutes away on foot.

To be honest, I was much more concerned about securing a practice space than a place to live.

In the idol industry, shared housing is mostly used as a way to control the members.

But for us, that word “control” doesn’t really apply.

We’re a crew, after all. We didn’t even sign contracts.

To some, it might seem like I’m being naive.

I’ve spent a decent amount of money on Sedalbaekil, but I have no safeguards to recover it.

If, say, tomorrow the members announced, “We’ve decided to sign with Lion Entertainment instead,” I couldn’t do a thing.

No contracts, after all.

But I chose this approach because I’m a regressor.

I’ve decided to go as far as I can with Sedalbaekil.

However far that is, you can’t get close to selling 200 million albums through coercion.

Creativity has its limits when it’s driven by pressure.

Without ambition, passion, and self-motivation, it’s meaningless.

That’s why I chose not to control them.

Anyway, back to the point: I was in a rush to secure the practice space but not so much the lodging.

But because of On Sae-mi-ro, I hurried to get them moved in.

I didn’t ask for details, but after Coming Up Next ended, it seemed like there was family conflict at home.

It was predictable.

On Sae-mi-ro was probably the first precious “treasure” his parents ever had, and they wanted to cash in.

But their treasure chose independence, which must’ve driven them nuts.

I’m sure Lion Entertainment noticed this and tried to probe his parents.

So I got him out by moving them into this house.

Turns out, before we secured the lodging, he had sometimes stayed overnight at saunas or shady motels.

An idol shouldn’t be sleeping in those places.

I also gave him some advice.

“Bring your ID card, passport, driver’s license, seal certificate, even your student ID and photo prints. If you’ve ever signed any authorization forms, bring those too.”

“Why?”

“There’s always a chance your parents might try something rash.”

Since On Sae-mi-ro was still legally a minor, not yet having passed his birthday, I didn’t want to take any chances.

In a capitalist world, assuming ‘they wouldn’t go that far’ is pointless.

Plenty of people have done much worse for money.

And who knows? Choi Dae-ho might try to exploit this angle to attack us.

Though he looked a little puzzled, On Sae-mi-ro eventually showed up with everything packed up.

“No passport?”

“Never needed one.”

“Get one made. You never know when we’ll have overseas schedules.”

“Do you think we’ll make it that far?”

“Of course. It’s even easier than domestic success.”

Through all this, I could tell that On Sae-mi-ro had shed a lot of his old insecurities.

In the past, he would’ve been embarrassed to admit he didn’t have a passport.

But not anymore.

Maybe he just feels more comfortable around the crew now.

The house itself is a spacious two-story home.

The first floor has only one bedroom but a huge living area, kitchen with double ovens, and a small outdoor patio for barbecues.

It’s slightly tight for five grown men but not uncomfortable.

The second floor has one single room and two triple rooms — this is where we sleep.

Naturally, I get the single room.

That’s the power of money.

So the second floor is our living space, while the first floor serves as our common area.

I brought in some gaming consoles, fancy speakers, and a high-end turntable.

But every Monday morning, the first floor turns into our meeting room.

We have a standing rule: weekly crew meetings on Monday mornings.

Today was one of those days.

I was up early, doing yoga and vocal exercises downstairs when Choi Jae-sung came down yawning in his pajamas.

“Is this what military wake-up calls feel like?”

“Make yourself some coffee.”

The other members soon trickled down in order.

Usually Lee Ion is first, followed by Choi Jae-sung, Koo Tae-hwan, and On Sae-mi-ro.

Today Choi Jae-sung was a bit earlier than usual.

Everyone gathered with their coffee and toast, still in their pajamas.

I checked that the camera was rolling — just in case we could use this for content — and was about to start the meeting when Choi Jae-sung spoke up.

“Si-on hyung, why don’t you wear pajamas?”

“This is my pajamas.”

My sportswear is my sleepwear.

“You should wear something cute! The fans would love it.”

“No.”

“Why not?”

Why?

Because I’m a long-standing American macho man, that’s why.

Personally, acting cute is something I have zero confidence in.

If fans really demanded it, I could try, but… not sure.

Well…

If wearing cute pajamas would guarantee more album sales, I’d consider it.

With everyone seated, the meeting began.

No matter what team I lead, I always prioritize these meetings.

No team is entirely free of complaints, but if you manage them early, they don’t become crises.

We reviewed our recent accomplishments and briefly discussed upcoming plans.

“We’ll hold a concert.”

“What kind of concert?”

“An indie-style concert. Up until now, we’ve only appeared as guests. This time, we’ll be the main act.”

“What’s the goal? Money?”

“No. I want to gauge our audience.”

Right now, we don’t really know who’s consuming Sedalbaekil’s music.

Resume hit #1 easily, but to be honest, that was noise marketing.

I created tons of buzz through Abyss Detector, stirred up interest by revealing our ties to Drop Out, and funneled people into our behind-the-scenes series.

We got lucky that Yang Seok-hoon made content out of our videos.

That chain of events got us to #1.

If we had simply released the song without any of that, who knows what would’ve happened?

Our limited promotion capacity is reflected in the view counts.

The first Independent Diary episode, which was at the center of the drama, got 9 million views.

But episode two only got 200k so far.

Maybe it’ll hit 300-400k in time, but likely not much more.

And episode three will probably drop further.

That’s why I want to do this concert — to observe the audience directly.

Are our supporters idol fans? Or are they music fans?

But surprisingly, all the members shook their heads.

“We shouldn’t just observe — we should build that audience.”

“We’ve barely interacted with fans.”

“We were busy before, but now we have breathing room. Shouldn’t we try things like live streaming?”

I was ready to listen.

After all, one reason I wanted to follow traditional idol practices was because I lacked knowledge in this area.

But as they continued explaining, it sounded like they were speaking a foreign language.

Photocards? Topkoo? Courtesy shots?